Supreme Court was manipulated - NDC on FTC Verdict

The National Democratic Congress (NDC) has released a document containing alleged manipulations by the Executive and the Judiciary to overturn an earlier verdict by the Supreme Court that challenged the legality of the Fast Track Court. The nine-page document released a day after the courts review at a Press Conference in Accra is entitled: "manipulation of the Supreme Court and threat to the independence of the judiciary in Ghana."

Dr Nii Josiah-Aryeh, NDC General Secretary, who signed the document accused the President and the Chief Justice of condoning to subvert justice.

Copies of the document will be presented to Heads of the Diplomatic Missions, UN agencies, human rights organisations and international civil society organisations in the country.

The document described the Supreme Court's ruling involving the Attorney General versus Tsatsu Tsikata as a day of infamy for the country's legal system. "Yesterday was a day of shame. The NDC would like to share with you, members of the press and the general public, the history of this case, the manipulation that has occurred as well as the blatant disregard for the rule of law and the constitution that was perpetrated in order to achieve the government's desires."

Dr Josiah-Aryeh said, "the NDC has never been against the computerisation and plaintiff/respondent's case never based automation of the courts. "On the contrary, it was the NDC that started the computerisation process and has always defended it. The fundamental issue was the constitutionality of the "Fast Track Courts". He explained that judges who voted in favour of Fast Track courts imperfectly understood the operation of the "omnia praesumuntur rite et solemniter esse acta" principle, which, in common law presumed that things were correctly and solemnly done, which ought to be done.

The Law Lecturer said that was the basis on which, some of the majority judges assumed that the Chief Justice had discharged his functions properly in setting up the Fast Track Court. The Judges failed to recognise that, at that time the Chief Justice was only performing in an acting capacity, "and that until it was proven that the substantive Chief Justice had abdicated his duties, the rite esse acta (Ed Latin) doctrine would apply to the substantive office holder rather than an individual covering for him temporarily".

Dr. Josiah-Aryeh, a lecturer in law said the argument by the 6-5 majority of the full bench that the Chief Justice could create a division of a high court was against the spirit and letter of the constitution. "It is an argument for dictatorship, and judicial dictatorship is as nasty as political dictatorship. It is against the very spirit of democracy as it vests and concentrates boundless power in one man".

Dr. Josiah-Aryeh said the Supreme Court decision was also flawed by the fact that there was no constitutional requirement that there must be a panel of 11 (eleven) to review a decision of a nine-member panel. He said Justice George Lamptey, who was empanelled to sit on the case had reached the retirement age of 70 and might only continue to hold office for a period not exceeding six months.

The other Judge on the panel, Justice Dixon Kwame Afreh had been sitting as an additional High Court Judge presiding over the Fast Track Court, trying the Quality Grain case from May last year but following the 5-4 decision against the court, he was nominated by the President to the Supreme Court. The need to safeguard the independence of the judiciary was being sidelined in favour of a desperate determination to reverse a particular decision of the Supreme Court, through a review process presided over and administratively controlled by the Chief Justice, he said.

"Never in the judicial history of Ghana since President Kwame Nkrumah dismissed three Supreme Court Justices...has any government of Ghana so blatantly shown its hand at interfering in the composition and workings of the court. "The Judiciary is at a cross-roads. Indeed, it is under threat; the clouds that overhang the Judiciary are indeed very dark. Democracy thrives best in countries where the courts remain independent and Justices are not turned into weak-kneed puppets”.

"Judiciary independence is protected when the courts act boldly in the cause of justice and stay out of the hands of political meddlers." Mr John Mahama, Member of Parliament for Bole and NDC Director of Communication said the Supreme Court's verdict is dramatic with serious implications for posterity.